AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Curran? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your motor. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens till the motor pulls it round. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully rinsed where your car stands around Curran. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Curran: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we can know.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a BT45 8 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the car just a few yards is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't weaken it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way along B842.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
The attendants working at any Curran filling station — the the nearest petrol station included — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. At your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
It doesn't blend. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Magherafelt last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
After it's sucked in, the harm takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it attacks certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Overnight, a car parked in Curran with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's just inside the tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a second kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that's the whole issue. Mixed into your diesel and left still, it is harmless at that stage; running your motor does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the following tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Curran or out in Desertmartin, costs more than almost any other error.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, wherever your car has come to rest in County Londonderry.
Curran: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two may appear the same. No one means it. It usually happens outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside the local primary school the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Dunaverty Court. Or someone new to that flap tops up your car in dim light, parked in the car park outside the pub in the village.
It occurs most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Curran or the remainder of County Londonderry, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Curran, and the motor started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Perhaps returning from the green space at the edge of the village, or part way across Curran, your motor might go rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or cut out. Once safe, pull over then switch it off — without turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
Curran lies over 50 miles from the M77; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
A quick hop across Curran to the car park by the centre is one thing; driving towards Lisburn, under 50 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the motor has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Spotted soon, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Curran: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped in Curran — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a street beside a street just off the centre — our van comes to your car. What was put in, about how much, plus if your engine has turned over: we check first, because those decide the job.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, provided the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes last. Then our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside the nearest station or a drive in Curran. Before leaving, our engineers make sure it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Curran and where it is
Curran is a small locality in County Londonderry, situated inland at an elevation of 42 metres. Curran lies near the villages of Knockcloghrim, Gulladuff, and Castledawson, and is approximately 30 miles from Lisburn. Curran is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Curran is a relatively small community, with a population of around 777 people.
Curran and County Londonderry: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the BT postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Curran serve much of County Londonderry too, Knockcloghrim, Gulladuff and Castledawson among them. Guessing won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
No towing is needed. In Curran, a small village, a mobile service works: the vehicle is drained on the spot, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Curran: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, and so no fixed price is fair. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind the far end of the built-up part.
With that reason, each call from Curran opens by asking the same trio — what went in, how much, whether the engine ran — before a figure. Given those replies, the range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Check your policy while we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Curran and still next to your car?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best thing you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Curran or anywhere around County Londonderry.